While walking in Woodbine Park the other day, I saw an eagle dive-bomb a flock of Canada geese, then fly to perch on a man’s arm

While walking in Woodbine Park the other day, I saw an eagle dive-bomb a flock of Canada geese, then fly to perch on a man’s arm. Can this be legal? —Carol McAfee, Don Mills

The city has employed a bald eagle and handler to harass the geese, hoping to persuade some of the city’s 25,000 honkers to fly away. In 1968, someone at the Ministry of Natural Resources had the bright idea of reintroducing the Canada goose to southern Ontario. Without natural predators, the dirty birds have multiplied, blanketing parks with their distinctive “cigars” and generally behaving like the avian equivalent of Don Cherry. The eagle isn’t the only nuisance to the geese; the city has also assigned crack dog teams to shoo them off local golf courses. And city workers have planted barriers of tall grasses to discourage the birds from venturing inland, and coated their eggs with mineral oil to prevent hatching.